


Words

by randers1



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randers1/pseuds/randers1
Summary: Words are just letters strung together. Some have more meaning than others. Some can heal.
Relationships: Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton, Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton
Comments: 2
Kudos: 65





	Words

Jay had been watching her for a few minutes; watching as she fiddled with the blanket, tried to follow the tv show that was currently playing, closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the couch.

“Hey.”

He watched them flutter open now, watched as her head turned over her shoulder, glancing to him as he stood barefoot in his kitchen.

“I want to tell you something.”

Uncertainty mixed with curiosity flit across her face, both of which she instantly cleared. He hated that she could do that, did still do that, with him. But he huffed out a quiet chuckle as he walked back over to the couch, blanket strewn over her lap, his side of it pooled in the spot he’d left a few minutes ago.

“Relax, it’s--” He stopped as took his spot back next to her. “We’ve been partners a long time now,” he began again, shifting sideways to face her. “And now we’ve been doing….this….”

He smirked a bit as he watched her smile bloom, agreeing silently that she too liked the ‘this’ they were doing, had been doing for nearly 3 months now. Nights spent at each other’s apartments, hands and mouths wandering, exploring, learning the meanings behind sighs, whimpers and moans. Dinners, breakfasts, drinks, talks, drives, and sitting in easy silences. Their partnership was surviving, remaining surprisingly strong despite the few bumps they’d navigated as they tried to separate business and pleasure. They found that, for them, it just wasn’t possible to create that bold of a division, and when they instead allowed a few lines to blur, suddenly it just wasn’t as difficult.

“And I like ‘this’.”

Hailey nodded, listening intently. Jay could hold a conversation with anyone but he wasn’t a big feelings-talker. Neither was she and she liked how neither of them pushed the issue. But he seemed focused on telling her something right now, something heartfelt, and she could feel her heartrate speed up a bit both out of fear and anticipation.

“And I just wanted to tell you that.”

“Yeah?” Her smile grew to full wattage, encouraging a laugh from him as he smiled back, glad to have told her.

“Yeah.”

She took his hand and pulled him closer. With her free hand she threw the unused part of the blanket back over his lap, and rested her head against his shoulder and chest. His arm wrapped around her.

“It’s pretty good,” she agreed, hearing his heartbeat in her ear.

She could feel him nod but he didn’t say anything. They sat quietly with the tv on low, and he dipped his nose in to her hair, his chin resting on her head.

“There is just one more thing.”

She pulled back a bit to look up at him.

“I just wanted to say…to tell you-”

She felt heat in her cheeks and a tightness in her chest as she put a hand against his heart. “Jay, you don’t have to.”

“That’s the thing. I know that. But I want to. I want to say it. To you. You might know it but I want you to hear it.”

She nodded and breathed in and out, each part a valiant effort to control the shakiness.

“I love you, Hailey.”

They were words that truthfully, before now, hadn’t meant much. She’d learned early on that those words that were supposed to be so important and mean so much were then followed or preceded by pain and ugliness, betrayal and destroyed trust. She stopped believing in those words before she was 7 years old.

But now. She continued looking up at Jay, allowing herself a few glances away as she processed her thoughts and bit her lower lip gently. A blink and a quick raise of her forehead as she realized that now, hearing the words—from him-- _did_ do something for her. She believed them.

“I love you,” she offered back, simply and quietly. It hadn’t even been difficult to say. To mean.

“So crazy,” he murmured, pulling back from the lazy kiss she’d initiated. “They’re just words … how is it saying just those three can change so much.” It wasn’t so much of a question as it was a musing.

“Nothing’s changed, Jay,” she reminded him. “Like you said, I knew. But yeah, hearing them…from you…. it’s nice.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “ _Nice_? Not quite what a guy wants to hear when telling his girlfriend that he loves her.”

She chuckled lowly, her eyes bright, as she teasingly condescended. “Not what I meant.”

“You show me all the time, Jay. Words…they’re…just…anyone can say them. But I’d rather feel it then hear it, y’ know. And you show me. You make me feel it. All the time.”

His smirk appeared and she knew she was in trouble as he pulled her to straddle his lap. “Mm, I make you feel it?”

“ _Jay_!” she laughed as his lips went to her neck.

The words were repeated multiple times that night, the next day, and continued until, and after, the day they were preceded and followed by the other simple words, “I do.”


End file.
